Newsfront

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Total Count: N/A

57%

Audience Score

User Ratings: 159

Movie Info

Set between the years 1949 and 1956, Newsfront tracks the destinies of two brothers, their adventures and misadventures placed in the context of sweeping social and political changes in their native Australia. Both of the protagonists are newsreel photographers. Frank (Gerard Maguire) is constitutionally resistant to change, while Len (Bill Kennedy) welcomes any alterations in his own life and in the world around him. The film fluctuates between black and white and color, between actual news footage and reconstructed events. Newsfront is what The Way We Were might have looked like on a tiny budget with a cast of unknowns. The film represented a laudable feature-film directorial debut for one-time documentary filmmaker Philip Noyce. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Rating:

PG
Genre:

Drama
Directed By:

Phillip Noyce
Written By:

David Elfick, Bob Ellis
In Theaters:

May 30, 1979 limited
On Disc/Streaming:

Nov 15, 2005
Runtime:

110 minutes
Studio:

New Yorker Films

Cast

Bill Hunter
as Len Maguire

Wendy Hughes
as Amy McKenzie

Gerard Kennedy
as Frank Maguire

Chris Haywood
as Chris Hewett

John Ewart
as Charlie Henderson

Angela Punch McGregor
as Fay Maguire

Don Crosby
as A.G. Marwood

Bryan Brown
as Geoff the Editor

John Clayton
as Cliff the Production Manager

Lorna Lesley
as Ellie

John Dease
as Ken the Narrator

Drew Forsythe
as Bruce the Second Editor

Tony Barry
as Greasy the Sound Mixer

Mark Holden
as Len's New Assistant

Alexander Archdale
as Sir Charles

Bill Lyle
as Macka the Projectionist

Paul Jones
as Charlie's assistant

Bruce Spence
as Redex Trial Driver

Les Foxcroft
as Redex Trial Driver

Robyn Moase
as Dinah

John Flaus
as Father Coughlan

Chad Morgan
as Redex Singer

View All

Critic Reviews for Newsfront

All Critics (4) | Top Critics (1) | Fresh (3) | Rotten (1)

Newsfront is, in any case, a pleasant and nostalgic movie, told in a key a little too low to constantly involve us.

Dec 6, 2005 | Rating: 2.5/4 | Full Review…

Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic
It is fascinating material, reasonably exotic.

Dec 12, 2017 | Rating: 3/4 | Full Review…

Elliott Stein
Film Comment Magazine
The way the newsreels are woven into the fictionalized story is seamless.

Apr 17, 2009 | Rating: B+ | Full Review…

Dennis Schwartz
Ozus' World Movie Reviews